Literature and Material Culture seminar series, Oxford

In Michaelmas Term 2014 the English Faculty at the University of Oxford (click here for a map) will be hosting a cross-period, interdisciplinary seminar series on literature and material culture. The seminars will take place on alternate Tuesday evenings at 5.15pm in the Faculty’s History of the Book Room throughout the autumn term. Drinks and discussion will follow each seminar.

Across the term, established academics (including Dr Adam Smyth, Dr Paula Byrne, and Dr Vike Plock) and graduate and visiting speakers will explore three main threads: material texts, clothing in literature, and object-oriented literary biography. We hope to see you there!

Tues 21 Oct (Week 2) Dr Adam Smyth (University of Oxford)

– Fallen books in early modern England: or, what can we do with errors in print?

Tues 4 Nov (Week 4) Dr Paula Byrne (University of Oxford)

– The Life of Small Things: researching and writing an object-based biography of Jane Austen

Tues 18 Nov (Week 6) Dr Vike Plock (University of Exeter)

– Edith Wharton, fashion, and the fictions of modernity

Tues 2 Dec (Week 8) Graduate & Visiting Speakers:

Beatrice Montedoro (University of Oxford)

– Reading early modern drama: the ‘material trace’ left in commonplace books